Dat Tommy Phan

Dat Tommy Phan is the Senior Associate at Toni Jaramilla, APLC. He has extensive experience representing plaintiffs in employment and civil rights matters at all stages of litigation in state and federal court. He specializes in representing public employees.

Before joining Toni Jaramilla, APLC, Mr. Phan was a Senior Associate at Kramer Brown Hui LLP (previously Hennig Kramer Ruiz & Singh, LLP). During his time with the firm, he successfully represented employees in a wide variety of workplace disputes, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and whistleblower retaliation. He also has significant class experience handling both habitability and wage and hour class actions. He has successfully litigated cases to judgment, and has obtained a number of million-dollar settlements on behalf of individual workers.

Mr. Phan began his legal career at Public Counsel, the largest provider of pro bono legal services in the United States. At Public Counsel, he implemented legal, policy, and land-use strategies to increase affordable housing and combat gentrification in Los Angeles County. He also provided transactional legal services to non-profits, small businesses, and low-income childcare providers.

Mr. Phan is an active member of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA). He formally served as Co-Chair of CELA’s Public Employee Committee from 2020-2022. He is a 2019 graduate of CELA Trial College. He is also a 2023 graduate of the Impact Fund Class Action Training Institute.

Mr. Phan is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law. At UCLA Law, he was a Discourse Editor for the UCLA Law Review. In 2016, the Asian Pacific American Law Journal published his article “Unpretty Nails: Addressing Workers Rights Violation within the Vietnamese Nail Salon Industry.”

For his early accomplishments, Mr. Phan has been recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

EDUCATION

UCLA School of Law, J.D., 2016

David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy

Critical Race Studies Specialization

UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, B.S., 2011

Major: Business Administration

Minors: Public Policy and Asian American Studies

BAR ADMISSIONS

State of California

United States District Court

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS

California Employment Lawyers Association

Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles

Korean American Bar Association of Southern California

National Conference of Vietnamese American Attorneys

Vietnamese American Bar Association of Southern California

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

CELA Webinar – “Obtaining Discovery and Using Civil Discovery Tools to Prepare for Dispositive Motions, Trial, and Settlement” – January 2025

CEB Webinar – “Claims Against the Government and Whistleblower Claims” – November 2023

UCLA Law Fellows Academy Panel – March 2022

CELA Conference Panel – “Administrative Exhaustion: How to Navigate the California Tort Claims Act when Litigating against Cities, Counties, and the State of California” – October 2021

LANGUAGES

Vietnamese